Obit watch: March 16, 2021.

Yaphet Kotto.

Man, what a career. “Alien”, “Live and Let Die”, “Raid on Entebbe” (he was Idi Amin), and tons of TV work. Including the good “Hawaii 5-0″…

…and “Mannix” (“Death in a Minor Key”, season 2, episode 18. He plays a jazz musician who is dating Peggy, and gets arrested and extradited to a Southern town. Mannix goes down to help him out. We watched this episode recently, and while I haven’t seen all of “Mannix”, I think I’d put this one in the top ten. Without going into spoilers, it goes in some surprising directions.)

…and, of course, one of my favorite roles: Lt. Al Giardello on “Homicide: Life on the Street”. (He also crossed over to “Law and Order”. And he made an unaccredited appearance on “The Wire” as a different character.)

Thing I did not know: that there were two TV movies based on Edna Buchanan’s true crime books (affiliate link), in which he apparently has a starring role.

I hear good things about “Badge of the Assassin”, a TV movie that you can find (for the moment) on the ‘Tube, in which he co-stars with Jimmy Woods.

Edited to add: NYT obit, which was not up when I originally posted.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 at 9:16 am and is filed under 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Obit watch: March 16, 2021.”

  1. Ygolonac says:
    March 16, 2021 at 11:55 am

    Don’t forget his bad guy Harvard Blue in Truck Turner, with Isaac Hayes in the title role. Also starring Nichelle Nicholes, Scatman Crothers and Dick Miller.

  2. stainles says:
    March 16, 2021 at 1:29 pm

    Thanks, Ygolonac! Lawrence and I have been intermittently discussing the Yaphet Kotto filmography, but “Truck Turner” was not one I was aware of. Added to the list.